1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to preparations for finishing textiles, particularly sheet-form textiles.
2. Statement of Related Art
It is known that sheet-form textiles can be finished by the application of aqueous emulsion polymers to the textile material to be finished. These auxiliaries applied in the course of finishing serve, inter alia, as filling agents, as stiffening agents, as non-slip agents, as weighting agents, as agents for improving seam tear resistance, as antisnagging agents, and the like. The plastic dispersions or emulsions used are, in particular, products based on vinyl acetate, dibutyl maleate, vinyl propionate, and acrylates. These products are also used to vary feel; polyvinyl acetate dispersions giving a very hard, stiff feel. Although feel can be improved by using plasticizers, this technical solution is seriously limited. The plasticizers are at least partly volatile at the temperatures used in various stages of the finishing process, so that the textile material undergoes an undesirable change in feel. Dibutylphthalate is one example of a platicizer of this type.
It is known that the deficiencies of vinyl acetate homopolymers plasticized in this way can be overcome by using copolymers of vinyl acetate with dibutyl maleate (DBM). Polyvinyl propionates used as finishing agents also give a softer and fuller feel than vinyl acetate homopolymers. Particularly full and soft feels are obtained where polyacrylate emulsions or dispersions are used. For economic reasons, however, it is desirable to use as large a quantity as possible of vinyl acetate or homopolymers and/or copolymers therof. As a particularly inexpensive component by comparison with all other potentially suitable monomers, vinyl acetate is rated particularly highly for the formation of the textile finishing preparation.